Officials in Minnesota have given the green light to three same-sex couples in the state’s sex offender treatment program who want to marry.

Petitioned by the offenders after the state approved a same-sex marriage bill, the couples would be the first to marry within the incarcerated population, according to reports. Offenders have previously married partners outside the program.

‘We don’t intend to interfere with their right to marry one another,’ Deputy Human Services Commissioner Anne Barry told the Star-Tribune regarding the men, who all met each other while participating in the program.

Effective since Aug 1, the state’s same-sex marriage law has led to the unforeseen need for the agency to re-examine how it handles relationships within the program, which treats almost 700 offenders released from prison but considered to be a ‘sexual psychopathic personality,’ according to the state. Only one of them is a woman.

Despite being incarcerated, the offenders are called clients, not inmates, and they do have a number of freedoms not afforded to convicts. Moose Lake is where the most dangerous clients are housed.A counselor who works to help sex offenders transition from state custody back to the community has his reservations about the unions.

‘There’d be an awful lot of things to be sorted out before I could say it was a good idea or not,’ Warren Maas, executive director of Project Pathfinder, told the Star Tribune. ‘Clearly, we want people to form healthy relationships, but you have a number of unintended consequences.’

Share this article

‘We should be allowed to exercise our
rights, our civil liberties,’ Allen Pyron told the Star-Tribune, adding
that the commitment would be ‘very healthy’ and another step in his
treatment.

Mr Pyron also
told the Star-Tribune that his engagement is an emotional relationship
that is more about intimacy and support, with less emphasis on sex – he
has been engaged for about a year.

Secluded: The client offenders are kept far from the rest of civilization

Despite the program not permitting cohabitation or conjugal privileges, Mr Pyron told the paper that he hopes the program will allow for him and his fiancé to live together and eventually gain conjugal rights. He also estimated that upwards of 33% of the program’s clients are in relationships.

Mr Pyron is in the facility after being convicted of raping a 15-year-old boy and confessing to abusing roughly 25 boys between the ages of eight and 16-years-old - he also confessed to abusing his young cousins about 40 times, court records show.

Nicholas Luhmann and Thomas Bolter also want to marry.

‘We have officially been a couple for about 18 months now,’ Mr Bolter told NNCNOW.com.

Explaining that he and his partner are ‘very much’ in love, Mr Bolter griped that ‘being a client is like being committed to a state hospital even though they call it a treatment center.’

The two men would need to make their
way to a neighboring county to obtain a marriage license in order to be
married, something the Moose Lake facility housing them doesn’t normally
do.

‘We feel like this is a
direct violation of our civil rights,’ Mr Bolter asserted to the site,
‘we have the right to be transported to Carlton County and to get the
license.’ The county has told them they must come in person.

Hard fought victory: Gay marriage advocates fought long and hard for the right Mr Bolter claims he is being denied

The convicted sex offender also lamented that his failing kidneys necessitate the need for action soon.

'They are failing, and we want to make sure that Nick has the ultimate say with my health issues,’ Mr Bolter added.

Mr Bolter is in the facility after serving a prison sentence for more than one instance of sexual misconduct with females between 13 and 15-years-old, according to court records.

His partner, Nicholas Luhmann, is a lifelong offender, with the first his known instances of abuse dating to when he was 10-years old - when he sexually abused his four-year-old brother, according to records.

Records show that Mr Luhmann is on his fourth treatment program for sex offenses, with a state psychologist stating that he 'does not utterly lack the power to control his sexual impulses.' He has also sexually assaulted adults as well.

The facility does provide transportation for medical appointments and court appearances, Ms Barry told the Star Tribune, adding that personal reasons do not qualify, but that will now have to be reviewed.

‘We’re going to figure out the best way to accomplish that,’ said Ms Barry. ’We’re going to have to figure out how they get the application.’

Future requests will be evaluated case by case, with emphasis on those deemed vulnerable, so as to make sure they are not being taken advantage of, Ms Barry explained.

That doesn’t mean they will share living quarters, Ms Barry added.

‘It’s a different set of questions, of whether clients can live together.’